Driving the LaFerrari, the superlative modern supercar

It would be a bald-faced lie to tell you that the promise of driving Ferrari's LaFerrari didn’t make this professional supercar sampler nervous as hell.

I've done deep testing on every Koenigsegg, various Bugatti Veyrons, and each model crafted by Pagani, and yet the bottoms of my feet filled with sweat and my fingers fumbled as I reach to open the swan door of “the” Ferrari, at the hallowed test track of Fiorano not far from Maranello HQ.

It's a hellzapoppin' way to end the most bountiful season for supercars in ages. What began with both the 720-horsepower/738 pound-feet of torque Pagani Huayra and 1,124-hp/885 lb-ft Koenigsegg Agera R led to the triad of the Porsche 918 Spyder (875 hp/974 lb-ft), the McLaren P1 (903 hp/664 lb-ft), and now this ultimate Ferrari at 950 hp and 715 lb-ft — more powerful than the Formula 1 cars built alongside it at the Scuderia. And at $1.4 million, the LaFerrari is nearly as expensive as they get.

Having driven the big three, I can now say I've been witness to a perfectly conducted three-act opera. The plug-in 918 Spider hybrid is wholly impressive in its techno-blitzkrieg, and it can absolutely crush the other two of this trio in green credentials. The P1 hybrid-boosted ground-hugger is exactly what I was hoping McLaren would do: Kick me viciously and make me feel damned close to one of their GT3 drivers.

But In the back of my mind, I was waiting for the LaFerrari to separate me from my senses.

Before launching me out to the 1.9-mile fun park at the Fiorano track, however, I was one of the selected to first head out onto the wild hilly two-lanes south of Maranello. Many drivers who tested the LaFerrari in previous groups had been hit by torrential rain; I can't imagine turning a wheel in this car in such conditions on hairpin-choked and oily Italian roads. These fun roads are notoriously far from perfect and the rigid build of the LaFerrari chassis finds the ideas of potholes and expansion joints a bit gauche.

Nonetheless, Ferrari has created a hypercar that can drive daily without feeling gawky, fragile, or utterly insane. I remember first driving the larger Enzo back in 2002, when what struck me most about it was how domesticated that monster could be in public when properly set up. Such is the case here: The overall feel, responsiveness, and ride over rumpled and sometimes pitted two-lanes are just as accommodating yet decidedly more clear in their feedback.